What Works? part 12-The Grand Finale: the film itself and I'm proud of it (and what a long title)

What Works? part 11-Evaluation on Go.

This post here is only going to be an explanation of what to expect of my film evaluation.

The evaluation itself is going to be a video with technical special effects or things similar to a regular one like PowerPoint for example, it is allot easier because I need clips of my film.

The evaluation itself may be an interview, but I will actually compose it myself by using the exact same questions and the answer expected for every aspect of this evaluation, and I will parody the fake and smiley nature that all interviews have.

Tommorow there will be a bank holiday involving the Royal wedding, so I will compose it and it will be ready by Monday, if the other teachers care to not give me more homework during this short holiday.

hope you understand and accept

What Works? part 10- Media Problems

In the longest post of the blog, I admit myself that when the boss announced the project that we all have to endure, I all of a sudden thought of a story, which shows that I did not researched into similar media texts and carried on with my own film (though when I think of the film I think of Alien (1979), and the Metrazort is based on my own fiction that I created at home or any other location).

Anyway, here is the 3 film openings, or rather two due to the fact that I really over analysed it and used up the amount of words required, but read it and you should realise how obsure the films that I watched are.

The 2 films

RH

Mickey’s house of villains

The first film I will do is the Direct-to-DVD feature based on the TV series “house of mouse”, it may have a higher percentage of re-used cartoons, and childish and c_a_p_ but it has got the kind of movie opening that has the potential enough to be reviewed.

First of all is the camera, now the first thing audiences come across would be Rule of thirds, as the orange-white moon is at the centre of a purple background, this is to establish to the audience that it is Halloween due to its typical sinister colours.

Then by using a crane/pan shot, the shot transfers to a silhouette of what appears to be trees, now this is done so that the company indent and the title of the film could be visible and stand out to the audience for easier reading (for a cheap direct-to-DVD opening the director sure knows what he’s doing to make things the way it should be).

Then we crane/pan to a establishing shot of the theatre, this is to establish to the audience the location of the feature to familiarise them to the same place as the TV series, or just generally the location.

The editing of the opening film is a simple long shot; this was done to accommodate suspense and the camera shots and effects the director intended, and enough time for the audience to properly establish themselves to the film.

A specific rarity was the breakage of the 180-degree rule breakage, which is known as crossing the line, now according to a guide, doing that brings in more attention for the audience to watch the film, which is useful in this case as it shows the Disney characters coming towards the audience with easy-to-follow expressions on their faces.

The mise-en-scene features the background in a purple colour with a white-to-orange moon, this was to establish to the audience the sinister and Halloween side of the film as the house would later be taken over by a cheap cameo bucket load of Disney villains.

Leaves during the silhouette part of the opening to establish autumn (and as usual, Halloween to the audience).  

The location of the feature is a mid-town club (as told by the size of the buildings), now the outside of the building was shown to the audience to establish the same theatre they see in the cartoon show, and just a theatre for the ones who did not, it generally makes it easier to establish.

As for the costumes, it is just the outfits from their original films, to get the audience familiar with the Disney characters, only the cartoon character known as max has got a costume that establishes on what his job is.

Set design (or artwork) is of course similar to the show with only attachments of a purple background, thus making it cheap art in the process, but is good enough for being a Direct-to-DVD feature to the show.

Finally, the lighting Low-key lighting is of course again to settle the fact that it’s Halloween (but animated characters are strangely not coloured to be part of the lighting, it’s what you usually get with cheap animated films).

The sound of the film is diegetic sound of footsteps (if technically seen in a live action perspective) to tell the audiences that the characters are walking, and also utilises non-diegetic organ music accompanied with the violin as typical Halloween instruments to establish that it’s Halloween, in fact everything of the movie represents the show, but with certain things to represent the Halloween and villain side of the film.

Canals and Canal Boats (narrated by Robert Powell)

The final film would be a direct-to-video documentary about Canals from Castle Videos; I thought it would be worth doing something quite unknown and rare with a nice non-diegetic score.

First is of course is the Camera, now the first thing audiences would expect is a dissolve from black to a Establishing shot of forestry and farmland, shot from a high angle and using pan moved to the canal, this was selected to surprise the audience to what the documentary may be about.

And for the rest of the program, the crane shot was used for ability for high angle shots, as well as filming scenes at the middle of a canal, once you’ve got the surprise at the earlier bit, then there needs to be more establishing for the audience as to what they will be watching.

As for Editing, the first scene is a long shot, this allows a more calming approach to the documentary as it allows the camera shots suggested in the camera section to be utilised, then there are several dissolves and several cuts after that shot at a reasonable tempo to maintain calmness and understanding on what’s going on, now it’s noted that the dissolves and cuts is matching to the music  (aka parallel sound), which will be explored at the sound section…

…Now, but before I do that, I will describe the fact that Non-diagetic water and a non-diagetic motor was heard first of all, it’s tell able due to the way the sound fades in and when the music comes fades out, this is to surprise the audience to this particular canal and water sound, as to what the documentary will be all about.

Speaking of music, the music itself if a mixture of piano and digital, this is a calm sort of music to the time and era of when this documentary was made, now of course it’s non-diagetic, in fact, the music itself is the main focus of the opening as it is parallel to the editing seen earlier, and then it suddenly has a diminuendo and a few seconds later a narrative, the reason for this is for the audience to get attention and later find it’s a narrative.

Finally is the Mise-en-scene, now the first thing an audience expects is a live location of Forestry/farmland, which is a calming start to the video, which drives the audience in.

The locations of the opening show typical Canal locations, now this drives the audience in due to the fact that they could be wondering what these things are meant to be and how they work so that they could drive in to the movie to look into the answers.

The costumes are the traditional ones you find with canal boat crews, this is for the audience to get use to the concepts of history, and there are tourists with modern day clothing to set a contrast, which the audience might notice in a positive way.

The props is similar to costume and locations, just something for the audience to raise questions about what those thing are, which the most identifiable are Canal boats and locks.

Finally, mist of this documentary takes place outside; therefore the lighting is natural ambient lighting for the audience to just be calm about it.

The final score is an opening that makes the audience curious as to what they may be watching or what that particular object is, as well as a calm opening with music that is parallel to the editing.

What Works? part 9-Target audience

Target audience is a piece of importance to making the film a hit (Adulthood is a good example of this) because it is the audience the film is targeted on to steal their money to create more films in a silly business that never stops.

Anyway, I did not think of the audience while making and filming the script, I only believe in making the film firsthand.
But If I observe my own film, the closes thing it would come to is Military due to the use of the military within the film (and stereotypically too) and Science-Fiction due to the cyborg Metrazort.
Other things involve romance due to the wedding proposal (though it failed) and drama due to the talkative and story flowing nature of the story.

The Metrazort itself also See another target audience:Those that have read or know Rombes, but this may create a audience problem due to the inappropriate material used within the strip.

I did not arrange my film for any demographics due to just the story being in my mind, but I see that older children about 8-12 would like it due to it's innocent and story flowing nature with some hints of violence, and the location is a military base, so I recommend it for those who live near one of those because they are familiar with it.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 

What Works? part 8- Props and Costumes

Within a movie, there are props and costumes that needs to make a film satisfying and believable to look at.

The Metrazort prop has already been described, but the base in which the Metrazort has been animated in front of consists of two large Lego plates and a enormous photo with it too, the photo anyway is help up by 4 stacks of 4 spot lego bricks, 2 at the front and two at the back.
It has been demolished and it's parts will be recycled for future films.

The costume Josh was wearing just consists of a camoflage suit and green trowsers, it may be the only things that come out of the Military prop-box, but it is satisfying enough for the effect to work to make the audience believe he really is a soldier.

The costume Mother was wearing has a similar story and effect to Josh's costume, omly it achieves the effects of a female general as it cosists of trowsers, a general suit, and a hat.
The hat may not be accurate to the real thing, but I presume that the audience would get the idea as to what is meant to be represented.
All costume related objects are in the box at the prop department of the WBS, waiting for another use.

The wedding box and ring may have short screen timing, but it is important to the plot as it starts with a failed proposal and the soldier's rage over that failed proposal.
The ring (owned by mum) is still wearable, but the red box was smashed hard by Josh during the film, ensuring that it is in a rubbish pile at Slough at the moment.

Finally is he Gun, now when I first examined the Military prop-box, I was not impressed due to how un-proffessional or how cheap those things are, tthe Gun itself is rather a old fashioned toy western gun, I may not be satisfied by it, but it represented it's purpose and without camera close-ups on it the audience won't even know it's a fake.
Like all items in the prop box, it's in there waiting to be used by someone else.

What Works? part 7-Risk assessments

You already understood that the biggest risk and flaw I had was actors not turning up, but there were other things too.

First is the Metrazort stop motion, that it would fall apart or not work out in the final film.
There is no location risk due to it being on one safe location, but there is the risk of the cleaning lady interrupting everything.

It was the safe kind of non-stunt or no-extra locations in my film, thereby I conclude that there were not that many risks involved within my film.

What Works? part 6-Shooting Schedule

I didn't really have a shooting schedule (in fact I don't remember the dates), I just hoped that it would be filmed in one day and that would be it, but I remember and speculate it was earlier than the others.
But the actors don't keep turning up which delayed the shooting (and if they had made it, it would have taked days or weeks to shoot everything) so I fired the old set and replaced them with the new ones, and that was recoreded in one whole day in 2-3 hours, shooting on one day is something I am use to due to working on my own films "The yard of Sodor".

What Works? part 5-Lighting

It's short, but it has got something which makes me want to talk about it.

The Lighting (as observed in the upcoming last post) is natural Lighting, the reason was that I wasn't thinking about lighting while filming in haste to be on schedule, but it worked out nicely and naturally (in fact, I suspect I'm the only one with a calm flowing story without any thrills and rock music).

But there comes something which I discovered...




This picture is one of the few that serves as a huge photo for the Metrazort to be animated in front of, but you may note that this one (and presumably all the others) has got lighting on it, it may be a error but at least it is not really that noticed, it was a bright day on filming anyway.

What Works? part 3-The Metrazort test film

When I gave the idea of the film and the involved techniques involved within the film, sir was unsure and asked for a test to see how the Metrazort would work and the techniques involved within it.
If it was successful then I can carry on with it, and if not then I would have made a revenge style film considering a mad person chasig a teacher with a axe.
Anyway, the test was a hit as it made sir confident of my production and idea, and let me carry on.

What Works? part 2- The preliminary task

Well, here it is in it's all awful glory, the peliminary task.

If you remember a post from a bit of a while ago, the main task was to represent the Camera and Editing tricks on Matching on action, Over The Shoulder shot, Shot-reverse-shot and the180 degree rule.

The result was negative as some were not properly represented, at one point my schoolbag was visible and the joke was poorly played out which makes this a bad video with a bad reception.

But hey, we learn from those mistakes as this was just a practice, all what I done wrong for this one later becomes right in the actual film later on.

What Works? part 1-The Metrazort prop

With this post, I will explain the behind the scenes thing of the movie.

In my own cartoon strip known as Rombes, there is one particular enemy known as the Metrazorts. 

The Metrazort itself


The Metrazorts are cyborgs that have come from a burnt out planet, but in truth they were based on the bionicle toyline (which makes them easy to potray them in "The Yard Of Sodor (my private film series)).

So I decided to create the Metrazort, and specifically out of lego to make a easy way to build it, but despite using the feet, head and mask of a bionicle, the rest of the lego came from the ordinary tecnic stuff (correct me if I'm wrong) to prevent allusion to Bionicle and to present more originality too.

The Metrazort is actually a static figure that has to be animated using stop motion, which is sort of based on the techniques of Ray Harryhusen, and I made enormus photographs of the shooting location (english corridor), and animated the metrazort in front of it so that it looks like the Metrazort is right there on location.

The Metrazort has got joints that pop out on the arms and weak on the legs, which makes it evident that it is not designed to be a plaything, but when the lower half of the metrazort's leg isn't visible in a shot, then I replace the lower halfs with a turning brick to provide stability and movement as the exact same time.

I myself provide the voice of the Metrazort, but to produce a robotic voice, I simply went to a deep voice and used pinnacle to edit the audio to match it in the condition you hear.

Finally, as for the fate of the prop, well it's going to be put into storage for future use in my films (recently re-used in The Red Traveller).

Hope you understand.

One Last Stand

I admit myself that all I have been doing with this blog is inform you about my film progression and not of the things a real media blog is suppose to contain, so with publishing this post, I will post the things that was missed from the blog.

Satisfaction

Yep, you know that you have heard that I have finished recording and is under the ediring process, and you know, the editing is comeplete with all sound and effects included, but would the boss be satisfied?

Yes is the answer.

Despite the fact that the music is a little loud, the film has been given the green light and is a major success.

And speaking of filming, this post also announces the fact that I'm going to upload videos of the entire course one by one with a explination behind it.

hope you understand.

Certain cast changes and Finally!

During the filming on Monday, David was meant to take on the main role of the general, but I didn't generally like his tight schedule, so before I went on filming, I replaced him with Josh Tulley, who was also at the scene during the time due to a more sufficient time schedule as well as the correct physic and acting skills I require.

I am apologetic for not telling you this in a earlier post, but it does make sense as it is generally changing the main cast.

During the Monday filming, Haley was there on scene which may be sufficient, but she too had a tight schedule which makes me film only two scenes with her then she had to go, which does annoy me a bit.
And when it was fully announced that she could not come at all, I considered replacing her with a LSA or my Mother.
In the end, I chose my mother, the cast change is complete, and the acting of both actors is superb on Friday which enabled me to film all the footage I need, so give good thanks to them.

No hope

At first you think they would come, but then they didn't due to needing to do their own work.
David and Haley are nice people as they offered to be a part of my film, but they just don't turn up.
And it is a tight scedual with them as evidented on monday due to them having to go after about a hour (hence why I only recorded about half of the story board and not the whole thing).
If they know themselves that they are too busy, then why did they agree to be in my film in the first place?

From Delays to finally

Well finding the actors was easy thanks to Miss Oddy, but getting them on filming days is the hard part.

Yes, last week from the date this post has been created, the actors did not make it due to a tight school scedual or helping with something.

But then, yesterday at Monday, they had showed up and I filmed a good amount of scenes from the storyboard before closing it in for the day due to light levels fading.
But it was just enough for being satisfied that I had actually done something.

But anyway, give thanks for Daniel and Haley for actually making it on location, the full cast list will be included soon.

Storyboards/Script

Metrazort story boards

View more presentations from metrazort.

Well, here are the storyboards, and from there you know the plot of the film opening, and not to mention what it begins: A cat and mouse chase between a character that audiences doubt and a cyborg from a long since burned out planet.

As for the script, I really only needed one thing to remind me what is going on, so it is that I only made the storyboard or I combined the storyboard and the script.

What is and isn't

There are certain things noted within my own film project, and so will explain certain things.

The editing of the film may be commenced at my home instead of the Windsor Boys School, the reason being in because I distrust the school system and the editing program is not similar to the one I regularly work with.
So I will edit at home because it feels more comfortable and has got a editing program which I recognise, and after all, after years of using the brand of the editing program (Pinnacle) I could be able to edit the film without delays from anything for 1 or 2 days.

I have seen the deadlines and schedual of what needs to be done, and I saw that there has to be a rough draft and a final draft of the film.
When I edit my own videos at home, I always feel satisfied with the final result and therefore am use to the fact that when you makee and edit the film, then the film is made.

It was also said that there has to be video posts of the progression of the filming (or rather more a film diary), well the amount of these videos could be limited due to producing the film at the instant on spot, so there may be a chance of one or two before the film itself is posted there.

hope you understand.

Meeting today + rush to it!

Today there is going to be another meeting between me and my crew, presumably about storyboard disscussing and finalising several things.

Having a meeting for the second time helps me to understand that there has got to be several meetings every now and then to disscuss things about the film, but it has to be the last meeting.

The reason being is because Miss Oddy reccomends me to start filming at this very week (the week this post was posted), and now everything needs to be really stirred up and put to work instantly tommorow at period 5 through to after school.

hope you understand

Meetings and Delays

On the 11th March, there was a meeting between me and my actors in the Drama department, disscussing several things aswell as agreements or dissagreements of several things.

The meeting helped me realise the true side of making films instead of how I usually do it at home (Ironically I recorded a episode during the weekend), in which it is all about agreeing or disagreeing and analysing things like polaticians, not to mention that the rest of the props is going to be supplied by one of my actor's friends.
But there will be another meeting sometime else this week, which proves to be a disadvantage because it will delay filming.

Yes, I admit that I am in a delay, as filming has not even commenced, and it's even worse because Miss Oddy told me that filming has to be commenced this week, and it's bad because I am still helping Peter's company with their own filming.

Hope you understand this crisis.

Delays

Well, I try to get on moving with my film, as the story board is complete and the actors have been ordered.
But the Problem is the timing, because apart from military suits, I still lack the other militart props, like a higher-rank hat, a military stick and a gun (fake).

Also I am helping another group with their camera work due to having a work shortage, so that stlows things up, but it is better to help someone.

hope you understand

roberth

Sound of Sound

You should be wondering about the sound involved with the production of this movie, well it will be told now.

My camera is running on tape, which is a problem due to the fact that you can hear the tape running while recording, and that would disturb the diagetic and non-diagetic sounds.
So what I will do is let the camera run for a couple of seconds, then put the soundtrack over the non-diagetic/silent clips to maintain a good balance.

Music is a difficulty as I couldn't play a musical instrument, but my home does have a piano so that I could junk in some notes of the best match to create a tune.

Non-diagetic sounds will be supplied by myself from different sources, especially mechanical to give the Metrazort some life into it, but the rest will bepend on the diagetic side of things.

Hope you understand

robreth

Photos

Well, I told you I'll show you some photos, otherwise you won't know what is or isn't at all.
Anyway, after this paragraph, look at the photos and afterwards, read further this post.

A high angle shot of the ceiling

A wide shot featuring the end of the corridor

From the side

A Front shot

The Metrazort known as Ditiri-Dacleon
demanding for freedom from production of
the film opening

Or is It...

As you can see, the photos are actually set backgrounds for the Metrazort to be animated in front of (Ray Harryhusen style), but it's not entirely cheaply using photos already used, because there is two which will show how the Metrazort will be animated.


Should you worry about scale, well no worries, because I can animate the Metrazort at certain distances from a background to keep it in scale.

Finally, you sould wonder what would happen to those things after the filming.
The Metrazort will be kept intact and put into storage to be re-useable.
The background images will be in storage too.
The hilt that holds the background images will be dismanteled for the blocks and plates to be re-used later.
The post ends here, hope you understand.

Back from the holiday + Explinations about certain things.

I'm back, and it was a nice holiday too.

Anyway, pictures might soon be uploaded as soon as I get their files, in the meantime, it is good to settle in with other things.

I decided to name my production company after my own cartoon strip character "ROMBES", the reason being is not because I want you to knowof the character, but the antoganist of the opening comes from that strip, so I thought it would be suitable enough.

So anyway, I may hate to reveal things in my blog, but I should tell you that the film's name is "Metrazort" which is like a basic cat and mouse game that a soldier is chasing a killer cyborg, but the key for the audience is: due to what he said at the opening, would you follow the guy? and do you feel sorry for the guy? and with that in mind, thinkig about what he will deserve in the film before the film reveals the conclusion.

The Metrazort is the alien in the film, what it is in fiction is way too long to put in this blog (if you want to find out more about the metrazorts, alert me), but I can tell you that the prop is made out of lego technic, and basically (apart from the head) avoided using parts recognisable from bionicle to keep it out of copyright.
Finally it should be told that the legs and arms pop off at times unless handled with care, which comes to show that the prop is clearly not a toy, but seriously a prop.

hope you understand.

Storyboard and photos-what happened to it?

There is a apology for not showing the story board of the main film project, but there is a practical reason for so, because I've handed a copy for analysis to make sure that everything is good and proper, and if so then it could be possible to scan and show on my blog.

As for the photos of the location and production, well it's not done either.
But what photos I have done are enormous prints for a specific purpose within the film.
Could you know what purpose it is for? well I'll tell you.
Do you know of animation? well I am using these enormous prints as backgrounds.
Exactly at the back of the animated figure, so that it makes it look like the animated figure was there.
(For you need correct lighting and scale checks to be careful when doing so).

Going on holiday, meaning that I couldn't work on the blog or the film due to the way it needs to be done.
Have a nice holiday too, roberth signing out.

Apologies

Well, looks like I'm not the most frequent blog updater, so I apologise for it.

Anyway, now onto the main film, progression is good so far, and the script and story boards is nearly finalised, all that I need to utalise now is the mise-en-scene and the actors, may have completed the key prop of the film but I may need more.

So after half term, I may have those things assembled and ready for filming, this is all I have to say for my Blog.

(And I couldn't do the filming in my holiday due to it being at a foreign location, and I would actually spend more time skiing).

Preliminary task results

As long as the preliminary task features the kind of things it needs to be presented as told by my media teacher, then you are on the right track.
Well, to make more sense to my story, the peliminary task was a smash hit, it did as what it was told it was meant to represent (see post one and two for more details) and that is all I have to say in this post.

Preliminary task

Hi there, roberth back

As you could see, I am not the kind that updates his blog all the time, but the kind that gives you sufficient news.

Anyway, a preliminary task is a test of seeing your film abiblites, and in this case it was a Match on action, shot-reverse-shot and the 180 degree rule, It seems that I was a success at the match on action, though average on the other two.

The story behing my preliminary task is a simple one, it doesn't have to be that professional but it is where someone wants to apply for a job, and in the end becomes a Job applier.

Fairly simple, and for the main task in which it is to be a 2 minuit film opening, the storyboarding is complete, but more detail on that later

hope you understand

Test

Hello and welcome to my new Blog.
I could not explain my name, but I could explain to you my prelimenary task.
It would be on average of 20-30 seconds long, would not only be about some silly irony but also show-cases if I am able to do the certain camera angles required, which is.
Matching on action
Over The Shoulder shot
Shot-reverse-shot
180 degree rule

hope these things work out.